Lehigh County controller can keep job

Lehigh County DA Jim Martin tried to have Controller Glenn Eckhart removed from office over rules governing former county commissioners.

Lehigh County Controller Glenn Eckhart. (CHUCK ZOVKO, MORNING CALL…)

December 20, 2012|By Samantha Marcus, Of The Morning Call

A Lehigh County judge ruled Thursday that the controller, whose eligibility has been in question since March, can keep his job.

County President Judge Carol K. McGinley on Wednesday granted Eckhart summary judgment, denying District Attorney Jim Martin's attempt to have Eckhart stripped from his job.

"She got it right," Eckhart said Thursday. "I'm glad it's over. Now let's get this behind us and move forward." The lawsuit weighed on him, his family and his staff over the past year, he added.

Glenn Eckhart, of Salisbury Township, was elected controller in 2011 and was sworn in days after resigning as county commissioner. Martin challenged Eckhart's eligibility based on state rules against commissioners serving as controller within two years of leaving office.

That rule exists, Martin said, to prevent officers from being in a position to audit their own books and to mitigate the potential for mischief. There isn't a similar restriction in the county's home rule charter, which also outlines qualifications, requirements and prohibitions for elected row officers.

Martin and Eckhart's attorney, Matt Croslis, argued over whether the County Code of Pennsylvania or the Lehigh County Home Rule Charter should prevail. Croslis argued the county code should be disregarded because the county adopted a new form of government in the home rule charter.

Croslis further argued that Lehigh County controller is a watered-down position from which taxpayers don't need the protection of a county code provision that would disqualify a former commissioner from holding the position.

In the ruling, President Judge Carol McGinley agreed with Croslis, and said that home rule municipalities have the power to define their own forms of government and the roles of the officials in it.

"Once a political subdivision adopts a home rule charter it is no longer a city of the second class, a county of the third class, a borough or township of the first or second class, but a 'home rule municipality' and it's code is the 'home rule charter," she said.

Under the home rule charter, the controller audits and examines financial records but doesn't supervise the fiscal affairs of the county, she said.

"The functions of the county controller pursuant to the county code are much more broad. "The words 'supervise the fiscal affairs' are words that suggest management and the exercise of discretion. The Home Rule Charter confines the role of controller to that of an auditor, which is limited to a reporting function," McGinley wrote.

Likewise, a commissioner, as described in the county code, is not the same as a commissioner, as described in the home rule charter, the judge added.

"Because these positions are defined differently in the Home Rule Charter than in the County Code, the County Code and its limitations are inapplicable," McGinley concluded.

Croslis called the decision a victory both for Eckhart and the residents of Lehigh County who drafted and approved the Home Rule Charter.

Martin said he would not appeal the decision.

"I have satisfied what I consider my obligation," Martin said. "We felt that the law was unclear. We didn't have any precedent that clearly guided us. We brought it mostly to get a declaration from the court as to which law controlled. That's been accomplished."